Apple, Nintendo, and Microsoft not only make Billions of dollars in profits every year, they also horde it. There all sitting on mountains of disposable cash in case of an emergency. Even in Microsofts beekest hour, they go into "red alert status" because they ONLY made $2.98 billion in profits in their third quarter. Apple is reported to have over $30 billion in cash on hand and Nintendo reported $5.7 billion in profits on only 2 products! WoW!   With Sony's declining fortunes, can they keep fighting tech such as the Wii, Xbox 360, Ipod, ipod touch, I phone, DS, and DSI? 

Well at one time Sony used to rake in the money like it was falling off trees, it is possible they can get back to that level. So yes, they can keep fighting them.

Money is not the only thing needed to compete. "Innovation" is perhaps more important as Apple and Nintendo themselves have proven. Apple with the ipod and Nintendo with the DS and wii.

the competion now is not like it was in the 80's, In the 80's, they didnt have to worry about tech behemoths like Microsoft, Nintendo , and Apple. In the 80's, those 3 companies were just considered "start ups". Times have changed. Microsoft begs their investors for forgiveness and time because they "Only" made $2.98 billion in profits in a single quarter during the worst economic times since WW II. All this while other companies are all reporting huge losses. Apple and Nintendo are seeminly ressession proof all together

Sony is a big corporation with a lot of assets. They're in an unfortunate (but not dire) financial situation at the moment but with some restructuring they certainly can continue to compete.

They are big, and can keep going for a long time of coarse that does not mean that they will they will do what they think is in their best interests.

 The difference with Apple and Nintendo is that both of those companies were always reletively small. Only focussing on 2-3 products at a time. Sony has their hands in everything from music, movies, tvs, cameras, games, music players, stereos, etc. Their costs are just astronomical. Apple and Nintendo never had that many things going on at once

Apple and ninty succeded amidst behemoths. If sony becomes the underdog, why are you hell bent on believing they can't do the same? Many once thought nintendo owned gaming and look what happened with ps1. never say never. We've seen this stuff over and over yet people choose to remain unenlightened

And they can't cut businesses?

If you read Sony's financial reports and look at their assetts, debt, projected losses and all that stuff, if the losses continue they can essentially run out of money in 2-3 years. They need to act fast.

PS1-PS2 carried them for a long time, really from about 1997 to 2005, accounting for 50%+ of Sony's profits. But PS3 is no where near as successful or profitable as those systems, and the company doesn't have the structural discipline to survive without having cushy profit margins somewhere. PS2 was their last device to have 70% (or anything close to it) market share in their big industries, and unless they figure things out quickly the company is going to keep shrinking - losing both hard earned cash from the previous eras and thousands of competent employees who are mislead by incompetent management.